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Dog 1 & Dog 2 say "hi!"

Welcome to the chaos – come on in while I find the kettle….

As you might have guessed by the title, the lives lived in our house are a little crazy. Oh all right, this place is bedlam.

I got so fed up today trying to manage it all I’ve decided to stop pretending and just write about it instead. I’m sure you’ve all been there at some point in your life; remember when you first got married? Either you were one of those lucky ones (I’m not joking) who moved from a tidy room at your parent’s into a nice tidy little house with very few belongings and just carried on that way; or else you and already lived in a few places (ie. uni halls and rented rooms) and had to try to condense your stuff into your tiny flat because you bought it when the house prices were high and that was all first-timers could afford. Well, we are the latter. So stop thinking one way was better than the other. We can’t all choose.

Although we love our little flat; it’s a two bed, first floor, purpose built flat with its very own back jungle… er.. . garden I mean, with history because my husband’s parents owned it when he was born. (That was a fluke by the way. I found the flat for sale on the ‘t’internet ‘ and arranged a visit, not knowing they’d ever lived anywhere but their current house further up the same road. He told me as we walked in the gate that out of 8 possibilities, it was the very same flat!) But our life is changing and it no longer meets our needs.

We got our first dog just after we were engaged; we were renting a house off a doggy friend and she suggested to go for it. So we did, a fantastic 16week old rescue border collie who completely occupied us all the time we were with him. Which was a lot, I only worked part time during school term.

After marrying, and buying our flat, we decided dog number 1 needed a dog number 2 so we got a puppy from an accidental, but well meaning litter we found through the paper. Our garden is huge, and ‘the boys’ got the 2nd bedroom all to themselves. Perfect. No problems.

Till January 2010 when our first child, a wonderous daughter, entered the world.

Cue, chaos. Unbelievable, unavoidable chaos.

I refuse to carry on pretending our house is always tidy, and clean, or that I am the WonderMum of my Mum and Mum-in-law’s generation. They had to learn to be what they are, and now I am too.

However, despite my honesty, I still know some very judgemental people – including family. And until I have gained enough confidence to ‘Be Bold’ I shall refrain from using identifing features such as names so I can continue in my honesty. I’m still using pictures as thankfully you can’t yet search for a photo of someone by name if their name isn’t in the title. I know, someone I know is very unlikely to find this if I don’t tell them – but one step at a time ok? I’d like to be realistic, perhaps it will help others just a little behind us in the life game not to feel as bad as I do that we do have to be WonderMum-in-training before we graduate (not before 40 years of age at least) as WonderMum-who-seems-to-have-always-been.

So to clarify;

We are the Smiths – that part is true, oh the blessed anonymity of my husband’s name. (Can’t tell you my maiden name, there’s only a few households in the UK!)

1. My husband; Him who sits, well, anywhere he likes; or DH.

2. Our Darling Daughter; or DD.

3. The border collie, oldest one; or Dog 1.

4. The collie/shepherd/loony cross, pup; or Dog 2

(Dog 1 + Dog 2 = “The Boys”).

5. The corn snake, rescued, 41/2 ft; or M.

6. The gerbils, varying numbers as I breed them, or rather I let them breed, with guidance/interference; or “The Clan”.

7. Me; or… me. (Sx)

Enjoy! And please feel free to join in on this journey as little or us much as you can with the rest of the site.